Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/59

Sometimes large numbers of seals lie about a crack and may move away some distance from it; if the Eskimos then succeed in getting between them and the crack they fall an easy prey. Gilder^[1] says that on one day from 75 to 100 seals were caught in this manner in Repulse Bay; they were killed with clubs.

Kayak hunting of seals has now almost gone out of use and is now only pursued in Baffin Land; boats are also used. The method in both cases is the same: The seal raises its head above water; it is shot at, and the hunters row as quickly as possible towards it in order to harpoon it, usually with the ice-hunting harpoon, but often with the big walrus or narwhal harpoon. Most seals, however. sink before the harpoon can be put into them. The seal belongs to the hunter who first wounds it; if it is a bearded seal, however, he only gets half of it, the remainder being divided among the others taking part in the hunt. Formerly for this kayak hunting of seals a lighter throwing harpoon or bladder dart (aklin) was used; one of these is figured by Parry.^[2] A harpoon of this type, brought home from Iglulik in 1823 by Lyon, is now in the Pitt Rivers Collection in the Oxford University Museum (No. 678). The shaft is round, of wood; the fore end is reinforced by a band of baleen strips; the foreshaft is of ivory, has a conical rear end and has a hole through it for the line, which is fastened by a knot. The head is of ivory, slightly thin, with two bifurcated spurs and an iron blade at right angles to the line hole. The line runs from the hole in the foreshaft through the head. then down along the foreshaft and round the shaft a number of times, being steadied there by a wooden peg. At about the middle of the shaft is a bladder, fastened on with two lashings; in the fore end it has a mouthpiece of bone, closed by a bone plug. A similar specimen is figured by Boas.^[3]